The NVIDIA ION platform gets a lot of credit for enabling 1080p video playback on low power computers with Intel Atom processors. But NVIDIA ION systems are also pretty good at playing some (but not all) video games. I’m not much of a hardcore gamer, so I’ve been testing systems like the Asus Eee Top ET2002 with Age of Mythology, a 7 year old game that happens to be the newest PC game in my collection.
At a reader’s suggestion, I did download and try the open source first person shooter Nexuiz, and that also ran smoothly, although I confirmed to myself that I stink at first person shooters.
The folks at Laptop Magazine tried out a few other games for their review of the HP Mini 311 which has NVIDIA ION LE graphics. Basically, ION LE is exactly the same as the ION platform in the Eee Top ET2002 except that ION LE doesn’t support DirectX 10.
You can check out videos of the HP Mini 311 playing World of Warcraft and Spore at Laptop Magazine’s blog. The verdict? Both games are pretty playable since the GPU handles most of the heavy lifting.
does it run second life well?
That’s great but what I really need to know is if a N330 + ION machine can also play Second Life really well. I have to get a new PC to work on Second Life simulations so this is important question for me.
It’s very important to me too, cuz I WORK on second life!
farcry 2 works well, but that is with gamebooster 2 turned on. Without it on, the other processes make the game too choppy.
If you’re looking for a new, free to play game to test with, there’s also Battlefield Heroes. It’s specs call for a minimum 1GHz CPU, 512MB of ram and is completely online, which sound like the perfect match for any netbook owner passing time in an airport. 🙂
That and it’s got a skill-matching service, so you’re “not getting shot in the face repeatedly by a swearing, ultra-skilled 15 year old boy who plays the game every day for 8 hours.”. 😉
Ouch thats a punch to all of us competitive gamers. I don’t swear online as much though.